A Painting Every Day

Mary V. Dearborn's recently published biography Mistress of Modernism: The Life of Peggy Guggenheim, explores the colorful life of the legendary art patron and dealer who helped launch the careers of artists Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, among others. Included is a detailed 1942 inventory of Guggenheim's groundbreaking Art of This Century gallery in New York that individually lists more than 150 artworks by nearly 70 artists (many of the top-selling artists of all time), the year the works were created, and the original price Guggenheim paid for each work, usually directly from the artist. The list ranges from 1937 photographs by Berenice Abbott (two bought for $14 each) to Pablo Picasso's 1928 oil The Studio, which at $6,000 was the most expensive piece listed. She set out to buy a picture a day - and in some cases was buying more than one a day. Irish Art